A celebration of cocktails that have been lost, forgotten or mutilated over time.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Exhibit #114: Cocktails de Jerez

Adonis Cocktail $7Bamboo Cocktail $7Here you have your two basic sherry-based cocktails. Each features equal parts sherry and vermouth with orange bitters, with the Adonis employing red vermouth (Carpano), while the Bamboo goes for the dry (Dolin) and adds two drops of Angostura. Despite these similarities, they were created on opposite sides of the globe. The Adonis commemorated a Broadway musical of the same name (incidentally, perhaps the first example of its type) circa 1884, while the Bamboo hails from the Grand Hotel in Yokohama, Japan, where it was birthed by German-born American barman Louis Eppinger about 10 years later.

American Beauty $8Equal parts cognac, dry vermouth, orange juice, and pomegranate syrup, with a dash of crème de menthe and a port wine float, up. One of the more interesting and successful drinks our customers stumbled upon during last week’s Café Royal roulette.

Coral Cooler $7Equal parts light rum (Matusalem) and lemon barley water sweetened with a bit of pomegranate syrup, club soda, tall and on the rocks. Lemon barley water is a traditional British soft drink which remains popular today and benefits from a long association with the Wimbledon tournament.

Royal Standard $7Two parts dry gin and apricot liqueur to one part lemon barley water, up.

Sherry Cobbler $8After three years and more than 100 different menus, it’s a rare event for us to present a significant, main-line drink, but this is surely one. One of the most popular alcoholic beverages throughout most of the 19th century, the Sherry Cobbler employed two new developments that destined the drink for stardom: the drinking straw and ice (crushed into ‘cobbles’). While we take these things for granted today, just imagine a time when folks did not know how to use a straw and required a bit of instruction, and that the other end of it was plunked down into the coldest beverage that ever passed their lips. The drink itself is a simple affair – a good pour of sherry shaken up with sugar, orange slices and crushed ice, some berries on top, and that marvel of marvels…the straw.